Thursday, February 26, 2009

Whole Grain Rant

Welcome to Pet Peeve Day at Cookie Baker Lynn, the day when your host goes on a rant and you get to sit back and wonder when the medication will take effect.

Today's topic - recipes that call for boxed mixes as ingredients. Now I have no big beef with that kind of recipe. One of my husband's favorite cakes calls for a boxed cake mix and a box of pudding mix. (One of these days I'll figure out how to make it with real food, but that's a task for another day.) I just don't think of it as real cooking to use a mix. That's just stirring.

What really cheeses me off is when I pay actual money for an actual cookbook and it has recipes that use boxed mixes. I buy cookbooks to cook, not to mix! Imagine my frustration when an issue of Bon Appetite arrived a while ago with a tempting picture of whole grain pancakes on the cover and when I eagerly flipped to the recipe it called for...whole grain pancake mix! What?? What kind of a recipe is that?

Thank heavens for Bob's Red Mill Baking Book, a cookbook with real recipes that uses food for ingredients. I used the recipe for buckwheat pancakes from that book and the Bon Appetite recipe for the sauce. It made a satisfying and hearty breakfast. I feel calmer already. Pass me another pancake. I think the carbs are working.

3- Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the water and milk, then slowly whisk in the butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir till just combined. Add a little more water, if necessary. The batter may thicken as it sits; add a little more water, if necessary.

4- Ladle about 1/4 to 1/3 cup batter onto the hot griddle and cook over medium heat until bubbles appear, about 2 to 3 minutes. Turn and cook until golden brown on the other side.

Well now Lynn didn't you look in that book before you handed over your money . . . nasty question, I'm sorry.I certainly agree I don't buy cook books to stir a mix.Bob's Red Mill is wonderful . . . the book and the flours. Your pancakes are a grand stack!

I totally feel the same way! I got annoyed in December at the cake on the cover of Southern Living magazine. It was this beautiful looking coconut cake, and when I looked at the recipe, I saw that it called for a boxed cake mix. I was so disappointed. I hate seeing so many recipes that call for boxed mixes. Anyway, your pancakes look great!

Yum! Those pancakes look so delicious. Probably all the more delicious because they don't come from a mix :) I totally agree: why should I pay money for someone to tell me to use a boxed mix in a recipe? It's ridiculous. Either way, though, nothing can change the fact that these pancakes look divine!

These look great! And those blueberries...divine! I agree with you on mixes for pancakes and quite often cakes. However, there are a few recipes that do use a cake mix (and that is usually the only mix I use) that involve MANY other ingredients...for those few recipes, I think that it's cooking. I would expect more from Bon Appetite anyway!!!

I agree with your rant. It is even more frustrating to live abroad and not have the coconut Jello pudding to add to the Duncan Hines Yellow cake mix or what ever American brand is in the recipe. I thought thought those were recipes of the 60 & 70's.Shame on Bon Appetite. Very sloppy.

I totally agree with you. I ordered the Nordic Ware cookbooks from the States because I love my pan collection... and half their recipes started with box mixes! I felt so cheated. So glad to hear a good review of the Bob's Red Mill book, I have had it on my wishlist for a while but haven't ordered it as I have never read of anyone cooking from it on their blog. Pancakes look great! I love homemade pancakes with real maple syrup. The darker the better.

I share the same pet peeve as well. An issue Bon Appetit put out a while ago that had gorgeous scoops of ice cream gracing their front cover called for tubs of store-brought ice cream. I mean, seriously? That's assemblying, not cooking.

lol, Lynn! I know what you mean about a recipe's photo looking so enticing, and then having it basically be comprised of a boxed mix and little else. But, I've been such a LAZY cook recently, that the ease of a boxed mix here and there is quite tempting! :-) Oh, what I wouldn't give for a plate of your heavenly looking pancakes right now...and that blueberry maple sauce?! I think I could make a meal of just that on its own! :-)

I feel exactly the same way! What gets me even more is when I watch a cooking show and the host uses boxed mixes, tubs of prepared "whipped" toppings, etc. Ugh. Anyways, your pancakes look so hearty and delicious, a perfect breakfast indeed. :)

I am totally with you being annoyed with recipes that use boxed mixes. Well I'm not against them entirely but as you said, if I buy a cookbook I would be annoyed to find them calling for a box mix. Anyway, your pancakes look yummy! I'll have to check out Bob's Red Mill Baking Book.

Great post. I prefer made from scatch recipes too. That being said my sister-in-law gave me a Cup Cake Dr cookbook a few years ago (all of the recipes start with a mix), and my Hubby's favorite cupcake comes from that book. I guess men are just wierd that way.And they are easy to make in a rush.